Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

That is one person, and he has a record coming out in the distant future. This record features members of Grizzly Bear and TV on the Radio. I know MBAR is sort of a lame-o...His sound is a little bit indie rock, a little bit country, a little bit garage. A little bit of love from the Elephant. MBAR's record is out 7/1 on Say Hey Records (will I even remember all of his names then?)

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson plays Wednesday 4/4 at Mercury Lounge at 9:30, for $12. Anyone want to be my date?

Here is one of my fav songs, courtesy of Love to Hate.

Love to Hate TV

Yes, its true. They are starting a web TV Channel. And I'm excited. And Embarassed. See the program sched here.

Liam Finn

I stumbled across Liam Finn some time this fall, maybe in October, and I really wanted to see him during CMJ festival. His show was scheduled for 1am on a Thursday, and I am masochistic sometimes, but I mean seriously...So needless to say I missed it. He may have played in New York once or twice since then, but alas, I have yet to see him.

His sound is similar to everything else I like, it features guitar and some synth and a surprisingly smooth, soft voice. I can't help but draw a comparison between Finn's signature sound and that the late Elliot Smith, not only in the timber of his voice, but also in the sighing background vocals. There is somewhat of a sixties rock sound in there too, or perhaps I am just getting a British vibe from his sound. That would be offensively inaccurate, since he grew up in New Zealand. The original song that I tortured my roommates with was Second Chance off of his I'll Be Lightning.

Since I don't hate the video, here it is...



Liam Finn plays with Laura Veirs May 22 at Bowery Ballroom

Calendar

I'm working on getting the calendar to look right, maybe setting it to pop up in a new tab, is that a good idea?

I bring this up, because I totally forgot to go to the Port O'Brian show last week, despite having marked both shows on the calendar. I am going to try to keep it updated, but please always check the show times yourself. I am happy to mark in the day, but it is up to you people to check show times on your own.

That said, PLEASE help me out by telling me when there are shows worth seeing, so that I can mark the calendar accordingly :)


<3 The Elephant

Bands to See in April

I was just glancing at some upcoming shows around new york (including brooklyn) and there are many more than I can actually go to, but maybe you are looking for something to do. Here is a list of the bands that are creating a blogger buzz right now that are playing new york in april:

The Dodos, Health, Genghis Tron, High Places

When I have some more time I can continue the list, just return to this article through the archive.I have a running calendar that you can view by clicking the link on the right hand side of the page. Please feel free to e-mail me with other concerts that are of interest that are going on around here. Although my musical taste might be a bit limited, I'm open to add your fav bands to my calendar too!

More Good Labels

Thanks to Claire for writing a comment! She is totally right, there are lots of other good labels. She mentioned:

-Merge (I <3 Wye Oak!)
-Domino (Animal Collective)
-Bar/None

And I remembered:
-Sub Pop (this was an obvious one I forgot to mention)

I'll keep adding to the list!

<3 The Elephant

Muxtape

I'm just going to link the Stereogum article. How do they find this stuff? As soon as I'm back in Astoria i'm going to jump in with gusto to this little project... you should too!

Sunset Rubdown and the Official Worst Opener Contest

By the nature of going to indie shows, one hears a lot of mediocre or outright crappy opening bands. I love openers, and have seen many good ones, including Final Fantasy, see the Take Away Show here, also saw Mobius Band as an opener.
That brings us to the Brooklyn Masonic Temple on thursday evening. I went with a couple of friends to check out Spencer Krug and one of his crews, Sunset Rubdown. (I'm not giving them a link, because the other person who reads this blog besides myself knows who they are). We missed the first group, but got there in time to hear a good portion of the second opener, Blood on the Wall. Listen to their Myspace, and then completely ignore what you heard, because it doesn't represent the band we saw. The band we saw featured low, screechy female vocals (i know, low AND screechy, crazy!). It also featured high screechy male vocals. You remember how I feel about screechy, see my Fuck Buttons post. Anyways, they were the embodiment of terrible rock music. As all 3 of my friends independently pointed out, they were like a horrible, horrible pixies cover band. Only with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah style vocals. And less skill. And more noise. I am not sure how much more I can elaborate on the fact that I just really, thought they suuuuuuuuuucked. It wasn't painful in the same way that Phil and The Ossophers was, but still it was miserable. How did they end up opening? It was Boost Mobile event, so I'm blaming them. I am going to start documenting all the terrible openers, and then proclaim the worst at the end of this year, called "The Official Worst Opener Contest". There will be some sort of prize....

So Sunset Rubdown played an awesome set, combining things from their two most recent albums, although I'm not sure if there was anything from the EP. They played a bunch of the Daytrotter session, and it just felt like Spence was really into it. Its interesting, because Random Spirit Lover songs blend together, so we were wondering how that would play out live. It ended up being really cool, because as they segued from one song to the next and it wasn't the song I was expecting, which i really liked. They joked about long spaces in between songs, but it never bothered me. There was a sense of suspense, and a little bit of trickery. Spence is definitely tricky. The more I listen to his work, the stronger his themes become, always horses, whores, nighttime (or time in general) or maybe its light? Childhood...fear. Anyways, feel free to comment (lol, people reading the blog) on this idea of his themes, he did say in his pitchfork interview about SR that all of his songs have meaning.

So once again, they were amazing, and we had a nice chat with Camilla and also with David Horvtz about the Polaroid Project. Also made a new friend, and I got his number for us, so yay networking! A good time was had by all, presumably.

The Raveonettes At Bowery Ballroom (drunk girls are good kissers)

Last night the Whale and I caught The Raveonettes at the Bowery Ballroom. I'm going to go ahead and admit that we skipped Black Acid, not missed, skipped. I was just not feelin' it when I listened to their myspace, and my tolerance for music that I don't like is pretty minimal. The Whale is a pretty big fan of a few of the Raveonettes songs, so we figured it would be worth checking them out live to see if they had a little bit more variety of flavor on stage.

We arrive after 97% of the rest of the crowd, so we bee-line for this great open spot sort of near the center of the crowd. We get there and realize immediately why there is an open spot. There is an outrageously drunk girl with her BF and friends "standing" over there. Girl was ALL over the place. She had this, long, ratty ponytail that kept touching my arm. Hair belonging to strangers kind of freaks me out, but this was really out of control. She also kept asking if they could go home (in between violent sways) and her BF would tell her that they were just going to hear the first couple of songs. I keep thinking that it couldn't get worse (unless she hurls on my knee-high moccasins or my white tunic). But oh no, I was wrong. Two dudes wedge themselves in front us, completely shamelessly. The whale is not a tall person, although I am, so I am mainly concerned about her well being. I would offer to trade, except that puts her directly next to Drunky McInconsiderate, so we are stuck. And to make matters worse, Dude turns out to be a woman hating gay man, who makes rude comments and is just a total douche bag in general.

So the band starts. They open with our fav song, Hallucinations followed by Dead Sound. SWEEEEEET. But wait, drunky starts dancing like crazy knocking into everyone, upsetting drinks and stepping on toes. Although BF sort of tries to contain her, it was a pathetic attempt. I am sort of pushing her away as she bumps into me, but the ass hole in front of me shoves her really hard away from him, causing her to tumble into the crowd. They respond by shoving her so hard that both she and her BF take a major spill. It was not cool (although at the time it seemed funny, I later felt that the ass hole behaved very poorly.) We eventually move, at the bidding of another gay couple behind us (they were our comrades in arms throughout, and they were both super cute).

So how was the actual music? As much as I like the Rave-on-ettes I will not be seeing them again. The Whale and I were both bored at the end (maybe our inability to listen to the whole album straight through should have been a sign). They have one song that they just sort of change up a bit here and there. Their slow songs have a lot of energy, but every song sounds exactly the same. Its sort of impressive really. As much as it is catchy and fun for about 4 songs, after that one could do without. I feel like it shows a lack of innate talent, they haven't grown or changed at all since their original sound (which is a unique sound, granted). The raveonettes are cool for sure, but are they trying to grow? I don't think so.

Thanks all for now kids,

<3 style="text-decoration: underline;">

Fleet Foxes-Ragged Wood

I was reading Pitchfork yesterday and I noticed that the forthcoming LP from Fleet Foxes is eponymous, but that it was originially called Ragged Wood. Thats funny, I thought, I have Ragged Wood. How did I get that? I probably got it from an email from my music source, and I DLed it, not realizing what it was. So, it turns out that it's excellent! I don't have the Sun Giant EP, although now that I have the full album, I doubt I will buy it. Fleet Foxes plays NYC with Blitzen Trapper at Bowery on Saturday 3/29. If I weren't out of town, I would be going. :(

<3 The Elephant

Six Word Reviews

This is an extremely good article, and I agree with most of the ratings.

Here


<3 The Elephant

Reliable Record Labels

One of the best ways to find new bands is to check out some of the bands on your favorite labels. Some people don't have favorite labels (gasp!) so I will help y'all out with a list of labels I like. Some of them are pretty big (like Arts & Crafts) while others are relatively small (like Park the Van). Size does matter in these cases because each band is a bigger risk, so sometimes relatively small labels have more interesting artists because they are hoping to find a strong niche. I could just be making that up, but it sounds right, doesn't it? So without further ado, here is my list of good labels:

-Arts&Crafts
-Jagjauwar
-Park the Van
-French Kiss
-Beggars Group (has a bunch of different small labels)

I will furth post when I find other good labels...

New Dodos Album Streaming

Thanks French Kiss for streaming the album!
Here

<3 The Elephant

Fuck Buttons (and snaps and zippers)

When I fist heard Fuck Buttons i loved them, until they got into that screetchy business during minute 5 of "Sweet Love For Planet Earth". I must admit, that amid the hype, i'm falling prey to their sound. I really like the more melodic, soft sounds but they do get sort of heavy and grating. I see a strong trend in elctronica moving towards more industrial sounds, and I'm trying to see if I can like it, but so far its a slippery slope. I do like some atonal things and dissonant bands (Menomena, eh?) it is going to take some getting used to for me, but I think I will come around.
I am a person that like small venues, and new bands (its actually one of my biggest faults that I never listen to old music). I am on a constant quest for the album that I can't stop playing, and sadly i only find about 1 a year. Thus I will settle for songs that i play obsessively unfortunately for my roommates. Although, I think they do tend to come around to the songs i subject them to, sometimes it takes some cajoling.
At any rate, nothing makes me happier than when a band i have been subjecting people to for months becomes big. I want to hear them in ads, at bars and see them on MTV (except I don't have a TV). A lot of people don't feel this way, but I can't understand why. Why not earn a living doing something that you love and get the respect you deserve? I don't think you can go into something like music and be in it for the wrong reasons. Its too much work and just such a blistering display of your soul, not to mention that it is asking for people to criticize that which defines you. Explain to me how this is appealing?
This is one of the many ways in which fashion and music are different. Tennis players, actresses and socialites all have licensing deals, and many of them have albums. Lets not confise these albums with the music that I am referencing. I am talking about people who thrive on creating new, unique music, not people who are churned out by a marketing machine.
At any rate, check out Fuck Buttons and decide or yourself.

<3 The Elephant

Some bands that have potential...

~Wye Oak (formerly called Monarch)
Listen to : I don't Feel Young and Obituary
Album Out: If Children is out 4/8 on Merge

This duo from Baltimore was just posted in a cute video on stereogum, and they featured them when they were called Monarch as well. SG is just dead on. These guys have a lot commercial potential (which might cause them to shiver, but, y'know what? maybe now Jenn Waster can quit her job at a restaurant)

~New Buffalo
Liaten to: Recovery and City and Sea
Album Out: Somewhere Anywhere (second album) 2007 Arts& Crafts

Australian beauty Sally Seltmann caught my attention when I heard that she wrote "1234", the famed Feist song. I have never been dearly in love with Feist, and finding that she didn't write "1234" irritated me. I know that happens all the time, but I think Seltmann's voice is equally lyrical. Give the girl some cred!

A Few Words on Music Videos

I am vocal about my dislike of music videos, because frankly, they are incredibly lame. The VAST majority of the time I find that the music is so much brighter in darkness than with some shitey video. There are a few rare instances that I feel the video really does justice to the song. One of those videos is for Feist's "1234", I have an obsessive love of this song, and the video is perfect. In contrast, I vehemently hate the video for Feist's "I Feel it All" the other of Leslie's songs with which I have a creepy love affair. I think the video is by the same person. Weird.

The other video that I think is truly phenomenal was submitted by two young men to "Said The Gramaphone's" "Wonderful Video Contest". Here is the link:

http://www.vimeo.com/666167/

So go forth, and appreciate the beauty of the song and the execution of the vision.

<3 The Elephant

The Next Umbrella

So Tilly and the Wall, a folky bluegrassy band from somewhere other than Brooklyn, has been on my radar since sometime in early 2005. But, they haven't released an album since their sophmore effort Bottoms of Barrels which came out in 2005 (thus my awareness). At any rate, I saw on stereogum that they had released a new single, I listened, but since I was never a huge fan, I went in with some skepticism. Holy shit. Let me be the first to say that I think this song will be the "Umbrella" of this summer. It is dancalicious, and just begs you to sing, and remix and do everything that a proper pop super hit should inspire you to do.

<3 The Elephant